All language subtitles for Gordon.Lightfoot.If.You.Could.Read.My.Mind.2019.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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[guitar music]

♪ That's what you get
for loving me ♪

♪ That's what you get
for loving me-e ♪

♪ Everything you have is gone

♪ As you can see

♪ That's what you get
for loving me ♪

♪ I ain't the kind
to hang around ♪

♪ With any new love
that I found ♪

♪ Since moving is
my stock and trade ♪

♪ I'm moving on

♪ I'll only love you
when I'm gone ♪

[Gordon]: I'll never write
another song like that
as long as I live.

I'm not talking about
the quality of the song,

I'm talking about the content.

♪ I've got a hundred more
like you ♪

♪ So don't be blue

♪ I'll have a thousand
before I'm through ♪

[Gordon]: That song was
a very offensive song,

for a guy to write,
who's married,
with a couple of kids.

At the time I was so naive

that it just came out
of my brain. You know, like...

I didn't know
what chauvinism was.

♪ So don't you shed a tear
for me ♪

♪ 'Cause I ain't the love
you thought I'd be ♪

[Gordon]: I was married
when I wrote that song.

So what do you think
that Brita thought about it?

♪ That's what you get
for loving me ♪

[Gordon]: In the meantime,
Peter, Paul and Mary

recorded it pretty soon.

So did Johnny Cash
and a couple of others.

And the next thing I know,
I hear it on the radio.

All of a sudden, boom,
it's a hit.

- How does it sound to you
when you hear

a country singer
do one of your songs?

- I just wish you'd do
more of 'em, man.

- Do you really?
- Yeah, I really do.

- Okay, let's do this.
What do you say?

♪ That's what you get
for loving me ♪

[applause]

♪ That's what you get
for loving me ♪

♪ Everything you had is gone
as you can see ♪

♪ That's what you get
for loving me ♪

[Gordon]: There's a great deal
of regret, there.

I guess I don't like
who I am.

[Kim]: We do, though.
- I guess that's the problem...

- See, you don't see the beauty
of yourself. We all do.

We're all mesmerized
by this just now.

You're just a little boy
from Orillia,

and your dreams came true.

These people sang your songs.
You know?

♪ That's what you get
for loving me ♪

♪ Everything we had is gone
as you can see ♪

♪ That's what you get
for lovin' me ♪

- Can I play harmony with you?

[Gordon]: I vowed never to write
another song that bizarre again,

where I said some of the things
that were said.

And so, I stopped doing it
about 20 years ago,

because I just don't like it.

♪ Everything you had is gone
as you can see ♪

♪ That's what you get
for lovin' me ♪

- Okay.

I hate this fucking song
so let's move on.

[If You Could Read My Mind
playing]

♪ If you could read my mind
love ♪

♪ What a tale
my thoughts could tell ♪

♪ Just like an old-time movie

♪ About a ghost
from a wishing well ♪

♪ In a castle dark
or a fortress strong ♪

♪ With chains upon my feet

♪ The story always ends

♪ And if you read
between the lines ♪

♪ You'll know that I'm just
trying to understand ♪

♪ Feelings that you lack

♪ I never thought
I could feel this way ♪

♪ I've got to say
that I just don't get it ♪

♪ I don't know
where we went wrong ♪

♪ But the feeling's gone
and I just can't get it back ♪

Yeah, I really like Toronto.
I really do.

When I moved out of Toronto,
I was about 20 years old.

There's a Drake sign board
right up there.

I went out and bought
Drake's album.

The one where he's sitting
on the top of the tower.

The CN tower.

Did you ever listen
to that one?

And all you gotta do
is listen to his records,

and you know
why he's doing so well.

He's very, very good.
Very, very professional.

Well-written.

Well-orchestrated.
Good everything.

[folk music]

♪ I'm not saying
that I love you... ♪

- There was a lot to be gained
by growing up
outside of the city,

and then going into the city

and taking this feeling
with you, you know?

It made the city more livable.

Now, the city to me is home.

♪ I may not be alone
each time you see me ♪

♪ Along the street
or in a small cafe ♪

[Gordon]: When I first went
to Toronto,

there was not music gigs
available for me.

So I spend the first 14 months
working at the Royal Bank.

I was doing quite well.

And just as they were
getting ready to kick me
upstairs to teller,

I had to tell them
I was leaving,

'cause I had the chance to
become a choral performer

on a country music show.
[violin music]

[TV host]: And now,
Country Hoedown!

♪ Come on right in
It's Country Hoedown time ♪

♪ We're back again
It's Country Hoedown time ♪

[Gordon]: They'd call me down
to head office
at King and Yonge

and the head guy down there
said, "Mr. Lightfoot..."

He said, "You're leaving us?"
I said, "I guess so."

He said,

"Are you leaving us to go
become a square-dancer?"

♪ We've got some dances
we'd like to do for you ♪

[TV host]: Welcome
to Talent Caravan.

And I would like you
to meet the Two-Tones:

Gordon Lightfoot
and Terry Whalen.

♪ Jezebel...

- Terry Whalen and I,
we had a really good act,

and we had a great repertoire.

But Terry's dad was our manager.

He said, "It's time for you boys
to sign a partnership agreement.

Fifty-fifty, and I don't care
who writes the songs."

But Terry didn't write
any songs,

so I didn't want to have to give
Terry 50% of every song

that I wrote
for the rest of my career.

Because this was what
was looking like a career.

♪ Leaving me blues

We were just this far away
from being under contract,

and having a recording career.

And I had to say,
"No, I don't want that."

But it took me a whole year,
and it damn near killed me.

As it did with every divorce
I ever had after that,

it damn near killed me.

♪ Jezebel

[applause]

♪ From the rail head
to the boat yard ♪

♪ From the factory to the farm

♪ From the mine
to the mill yard ♪

♪ I've weathered the storm

- Yorkville, take 20.

♪ From the bar room
to the bedpost ♪

♪ I've wasted my days

♪ All I have is my drink
And the time left to think ♪

♪ While the time slips away

♪ Just look at my face

♪ When you tell me goodbye

- Yorkville was its own little
community, back in those days.

All along here were townhouses.

Joni lived right here
in one of these places.

Joni Mitchell.

She moved to Detroit.

She was really into art,
and she lived about a block away

from the art museum in Detroit,

because she used to take us
down there,

and I remember her taking
Richie Havens and I

down there one day,

and having scrambled eggs
at the art museum.

And she was very kind to me.

They used to let me, Joni used
to let me use her apartment

when I was in Detroit,
if they were on the road.

Joni, she said,
"Gord, you gotta stop

this feeling of envy."

Every time I would have
an album coming out,

the Beatles would eat us alive
with record sales,

just as we would have an album
come out in the market,

that we'd worked on for months,
and months, and months.

And there it is, all of a sudden
we get a Beatles album

right in our face.

But Joni said, "You gotta listen
to the Beatles Revolver album."

And that was what made me
appreciate The Beatles.

[crowd, chanting]:
♪ We want the Beatles

♪ We want the Beatles

- So as they talk about,
was there envy

amongst the recording artists
over sales?

Well sure, there was.

If you felt envious,
you sit down and write
another album.

Try and do better.
You always try to do better.

You know, I can pick up
the same vibes

here right now as I did then.

There was a lot of clubs
at the beginning

of the folk revival,
here in Toronto.

And The Riverboat outdid them.

It's what the plaque says.

It was right in here,
and you went downstairs.

Like, you walked down
a flight of stairs.

[folk rock music]

[Bernie Fielder]:
The whole Yorkville scene,

that was like a Haight-Ashbury.

It was like a New York village.

You know, don't forget:
people like Joni Mitchell

and Neil Young,
James Taylor,

Kristofferson, Coburn,
McLauchlan.

Everybody worked there.

And these were all "the people".

♪ Got up this morning

♪ You were on my mind

- One of the things
that was special

about folk music
is that it was so accessible.

♪ You were on my mind

The audience at the time
really felt

they were involved
in the music,

and they could learn those songs
and they could sing them too.

Those songs said something

and they have a point of view
that perhaps -

well, more than perhaps -

was missing in pop music
at that time.

We'd actually heard about Gord
before we saw him,

that he had written
some really good songs.

So, the word was out
on the street, so to speak.

♪ Everybody's movin'

♪ Moving across the town

[Ian Tyson]: Gord was
at Steeles Tavern for,

I think, a couple years,

and developed a nice following
because, you know,

he sang so good, and he took
his music so seriously.

[Sylvia]: Ian and I thought
he was a really great singer,
and it was obvious

that he was a very committed
and thoughtful songwriter,

even at that early stage.

♪ The skyline grows

♪ And the cut of the clothes
is enough to turn you around ♪

♪ Oh oh

- I used to own
The Riverboat.

So I had a lot of people
come to me and say,

"You know, there's a guy
playing at Steeles Tavern,

and you should hire that guy."

So I went there, and I caught
his last song on the set.

♪ Everybody's movin'

♪ Nothin' stays the same

As he comes off the stage,
I said to him,

"I want to hire you.
I'll pay you twice as much money
as this guy pays you."

And he looked at me

and he said, "Oh, yeah. Okay.
When do we start?"

♪ Oh it's the time to start
making your mark ♪

♪ And it's the time
to get in the game ♪

♪ Everybody's movin'

♪ Nothin' stays the same

- The minute
I went into one of those clubs,

which were more like
real true coffee houses,

before they became rock clubs,
I just was captured.

The vibe was he was the best.
I mean, Toronto loved him.

Kind of like the way
Toronto loves Drake right now.

- He played in little folk
houses, but I liked
the way he played.

I used to take people over
to hear him play,
and they liked him too.

It's just the way he picked
and played and he moved up.

He became the top dog.

[folk music]

But we ran around,
'cause I had all the girls

until he got super big,
and then he had them all.

[chuckling]

♪ The future is just
an hour away ♪

♪ And the hearts of youth
are aflame ♪

♪ Everybody's movin'

♪ Nothin' stays the same

[Gordon]: I was working
all the time.

And I started to get a following
by then.

So I started thinking
about my writing at that point.

I said, "If I'm gonna earn
a living doing this,

I'm going to have
to write some songs."

- Well, next time you do
a recording session,

I suppose you'll be recording
some of your own songs,

will you not?
- Definitely, yes.

- Well, I hope they turn out
real well for you.

♪ It is said that all the good
things must come to him ♪

♪ Who can pretend
he doesn't have to wait ♪

♪ For as surely
as the light of day ♪

♪ Must come to drive
the night away ♪

♪ The needles and the pins

♪ That's where the line begins

♪ With your magnificent
outpouring
of that old familiar story ♪

[Gordon]: I was living
in a basement apartment

which was very nice,
and I loved it there.

I had a little room,
and I had a desk,
and I had a chair.

I knew tha I had to sit down
and do the work.

Then all of a sudden,

one day, I popped off with
"Early Morning Rain".

That turned out to be
one of my biggest,
most important tunes.

♪ In the early morning rain

♪ With a dollar in my hand

♪ With an aching in my heart

♪ And the pockets full of sand

♪ I'm a long way from home

♪ Lord I miss my loved ones so

♪ In the early morning rain

[overlapping with Gordon]
- In the early morning rain
with no place to go.

That's one of my favourites.

♪ Out on runway number nine

♪ Big 707 set to go

- He did ballads
like nobody else did them.

They didn't have
big lush strings

and like, Barry Manilow
kind of stuff,

you know,
Weekend in New England stuff.

It was just a guy
with an acoustic guitar,

singing a ballad
of Early Morning Rain,

and it really touched you,
because it's melodic,

he has a very smooth,
honey, kind of velvet
kind of voice.

♪ This old airport's
got me down ♪

♪ It's no earthly good to me

♪ And I'm stuck here
on the ground ♪

♪ As cold and drunk
as I can be ♪

[Gordon]: We would go
to the airport,

and watch the planes
coming and going.

One time, it was a misty day.

I was standing
watching at the approach,

and all of a sudden,
out from the clouds,

brand spanking new,

Boeing 707 just
getting ready to land.

♪ Far above the clouds
she'll fly ♪

[Gordon]: One night, Ian and
Sylvia heard me do
Early Morning Rain

and the next day
Ian called me and said,

"We're just in the middle
of doing a recording,

and we really like
Early Morning Rain."

♪ In the early morning rain

- Early Morning Rain,
that was a very powerful song.

It wasn't completely regretful.

There was an edge of optimism
within that lyric,

so that song, it blew me away.

It really did.

♪ She's away
and westward bound ♪

♪ High above the clouds
she'll fly ♪

[Gordon]: In the meantime,

Ian played the material
for Peter, Paul and Mary.

They made a damn good
recording of the song.

♪ Hear the mighty engine roar

♪ Hear the might engine
roar ♪

♪ See the silver wing on high

♪ See the silver wing
on high ♪

[Gordon]: I said, these guys
are pretty good.

♪ Oh there she goes my friend

♪ There she's rolling now
at last ♪

[interviewer]: How do you dig
a lot of people
doing your songs?

Like, everybody has
a Lightfoot song.
Do you like that?

- Well, yeah!
[laughter]

♪ This old airport's
got me down ♪

♪ It's no earthly good to me

♪ 'Cause I'm stuck here
on the ground ♪

♪ Cold and drunk as I can be

♪ You can't jump a jet plane

♪ Like you can a freight train

♪ So I best be on my way

♪ In the early morning rain

- I forgot to water my guitars
last night.

They gotta be kept watered
like flowers.

When I get on the stage,
I like to hear that,

the sound of the wood...

[machine hissing]

...and not the wires.

Alright.

I'll get to you guys later.

- Burton Cummings had joined
The Guess Who,
we went on the road.

- The guy from Quality Records
took us to see Gordon Lightfoot.

- So, we went to see
a whole evening
with Gordon Lightfoot,

and nobody knew he was,
really, yet in Montreal.

He wasn't Leonard Cohen.

- Randy and I, we were still
a cover band. And here,

Lightfoot comes out and sings

a whole set of his own songs
that he had written.

- And every song was
like... painted this picture.

- He changed our lives
forever.

We came away
from that little club that night

wanting immediately
to start being songwriters.

- They find the young man,

he's locked himself
in his chalet.

He's hopelessly lost.

And... It's a song about winter,
and things like that.

Sitting up all night drinking,
and terrible things like that.

[crowd laughing]

[guitar]

- The song,
For a Winter's Night.

And I think to this day,

that's my favourite
Gordon Lightfoot tune.

♪ The lamp is burnin' low
upon my table top ♪

♪ The snow is softly falling

♪ The air is still
in the silence of my room ♪

♪ I hear your voice
softly calling ♪

[Gordon]: I quite often
write

with some kind of locality
in mind

that keeps coming back to me.

When I wrote that,
I was thinking about being

right out in the middle
of the mountains somewhere.

Right out in the middle
of nowhere.

♪ On this winter night
with you ♪

- The song,
For a Winter's Night,

you picture a cabin
in the woods,

snow falling,
a lamp in the window.

But he said he was
in a motel room in Cleveland

when he wrote the song.

So, you can take yourself
with that pen and paper,

and you put yourself anywhere,
and Gord is the master of that.

♪ I would be happy just
to hold the hands I love

♪ And to be once again
with you ♪

♪ To be once again with you

- It's literally, you know,
light a couple candles,

have a glass of wine,
and sit by the fire.

It's kind of a quintessential
feeling of a Canadian winter,

that song in particular,
when you hear it.

And for me, it certainly
conjures up those images.

♪ The snow is softly falling

♪ The air is still
in the silence of my room ♪

♪ I hear your voice
softly calling ♪

[Gordon]: Truly, it comes
from the unconscious mind.

I swear,
it's an imaginary process.

Everything that I've done

has really, basically, been
a figment of the imagination.

You just want to make sure
it rhymes.

♪ And to be once again
with you ♪

♪ Just to be once again
with you ♪

- Gord had the talent
and the voice,

but there was a lot of
work ethic there.

- He's not somebody
who just whips off a song.

I think he spends endless hours

writing and refining
his material.

[Gordon]: All I did
was write songs.

I was always isolated.

Somewhere in an apartment,
somewhere...

in a space I would find.

- I think that's kind of a
natural place, as a songwriter,

to often need to go,
and sequester oneself away.

Most of the time
with a true songwriter,

it comes from your gut,
and from your soul.

And who knows what stars
have to align
to make that happen?

[Gordon]: It wasn't even
getting away from people.

You knew that you had
to be isolated to do it.

Sit down at the table
and actually do it.

- I think Gord's, like,
the rarest category,

in terms of being really,
just beautifully written songs.

♪ Sometimes I just don't know

♪ How you could be anything
But beautiful ♪

♪ I think that I was made
for you ♪

♪ And you were made for me

- And the thing about him,
is he sings it so clean.

There's obviously
some arrangement to Beautiful,

it's probably one of my
favourite ballads of all time.

♪ We've been friends
through rain or shine ♪

♪ For such a long, long time

[Gordon]: When you're working
on the tune,

and you're sort of describing

the feel that you're getting
from that.

And sort of looking inside
yourself for something to say,

and having a melody,

and having a chord structure
already prepared,

it sometimes, the imagination
just does the work for you.

That's the F12.

It's tuned in the key of F.

[playing guitar]

- He's interested
in guitar tunings,

and he knows a lot of them.

And he knows that that's a trick
to get yourself to write songs.

It's like, change the
instrument, change the notes

that come out of the instrument
when you lay your hands on it.

- I go through a bunch
of changes like that,

and the melodies sort of...

That's what I always say
to kids

who ask me how to go at it,

first the chord progression,
and then the melody,

and then the words.
If you can do it.

- I'd love to write a song
with him,

but I don't think
he writes with anybody.

He creates all that stuff
himself, isn't that amazing?

♪ Well I got my mail
late last night ♪

♪ A letter from a girl
who found the time to write ♪

♪ To a lonesome boy
somewheres in the night ♪

♪ She sent me a railroad ticket
too ♪

♪ To take me
to her lovin' arms ♪

♪ And the big steel rail
gonna carry me home ♪

♪ To the one I love

- I know for a fact that the
way he writes is meticulous.

And he will go over, and over,
and over, and over a lyric.

He will mess with the melody.

I mean, he's one of the few
people I know

that writes his own lead sheets.

And he's musically educated,
and he's a craftsman.

♪ The big steel rail
gonna carry me home ♪

♪ To the one I love

- He was so smart
with the words.

He was just so bright
as a writer.

♪ My good old car
she done broke down ♪

♪ 'Cause I drove it
into the ground ♪

♪ And the big steel rail
gonna carry me home ♪

♪ To the one I love

- He, to me, is one
of the greatest examples

of timeless singer-songwriter.

You know, a man dedicated
to the word and to the tune.

♪ I went in town
for one last round ♪

♪ And I gambled
my ticket away ♪

♪ And the big steel rail
won't carry me home ♪

♪ To the one I love

[Gordon]: I sometimes wonder,
really,

how I was able to do that.

I'm grateful.

I've been gifted
to be able to create songs.

♪ Yee-hoo-hoo

[applause]

- His new recording contract
with Warner Brothers

was something that Lightfoot
had been wanting
for a long time.

And it was kind of like
a breakthrough deal

for a Canadian artist
at that time.

Like, a million-dollar deal.

- I was a real fan
before I even knew him,

and was incredibly excited
when we were going to sign him.

[Gordon]: My first
Warner Brothers record came out.

Sit Down Young Stranger.

They shipped 80,000 records,
and everything stopped.

The record was dead,

it had no legs,
as they said in the trade.

And this is a whole album
we're talking about, now.

80,000 copies. Boom.
That's the end of it.

So, we were thinking,

is there another single
that we might try to do?

The one that they picked next
as a single was

If You Could Read My Mind.

And they got an ad in
the Top 40 station in Seattle,

in the same week.

- Some guy loved music,
loved Gordon,

and fell in love with
If You Could Read My Mind.

Started playing it,
and it was an AM station.

And it was
a fairly important one,

and the thing blew up.

And so, when that became a hit,

the company wanted
to take advantage of it
as best they could.

So, changing the title
of the album

was sort of the obvious ploy.

- Next week, I get a call,

"Can we change
the title of the album?"

They said, "We want to change
the title of the album

to If You Could Read My Mind."
And I'm so irate

that I actually get on a plane,

and I fly out to LA to sit down

and have an argument
with these boys.

So I was kind of bit of a
prima donna at the time.

I said, "They're not gonna
change the title of my album

to If You Could Read My Mind
from Sit Down Young Stranger!"

I would do awkward things,
I would say awkward things,

and they didn't really
take me seriously sometimes,

but they took my art seriously,
though.

I had asked the question,

"What difference would it make

if you changed
the title of my album?"

And he said,

"Algebraically speaking,
Lightfoot," he said,

"It's the difference
between x and 7x."

And I got on that airplane
and flew back to Toronto.

Five or six weeks later,
we'd sold 650,000 records.

So, it had sold the 7x,

and I kept my mouth shut
from then on.

- If You Can Read My Mind
is a classic.

Wasn't that recorded
by someone else too?

[dance music]
♪ If you could

♪ If you could

♪ If you could read my mind

♪ If you could read my mind,
love ♪

♪ What a tale my thoughts
would tell ♪

♪ Just like an old time movie

♪ About a ghost
from a wishing well ♪

♪ In a castle dark

♪ Or a fortress strong

♪ With chains upon my feet

♪ You know that ghost is me

♪ I don't know
where we went wrong ♪

♪ But the feeling's gone
And I just can't get it back ♪

- Sometimes, my wife and I,

we'll pick out certain
Lightfoot lines from songs,

just that one line moves me
so much.

And I said,
I always choke up...

and it's a simple line,

but for some reason,
and I don't know why,

I always choke up
at the line of,

"Is the home team still on fire,

do they still win
all the games?"

- He's gonna cry.
There he goes.

- I can't even say it.
- Yeah...

- "And by the way,
did she mention my name?"

That just moves me.

♪ It's so nice to meet
an old friend ♪

♪ And pass the time of day

♪ And talk about the home town
a million miles away ♪

♪ Is the ice still
in the river ♪

♪ Are the old folks
still the same ♪

♪ And by the way,
did she mention... ♪

[Gordon]: You know, Orillia was
a great little town
to grow up in.

All the necessities of life
were here.

We had all those things
that kids enjoy doing.

Hockey, baseball,
fishing, swimming.

It was very idyllic.

♪ Did she mention my name
just in passing ♪

♪ And when the talk ran high

♪ Did the look in her eye
seem far away ♪

♪ Is the old roof
still leaking ♪

- Well, this is the street
that I grew up on.

We played up
behind these houses.

There was a couple of fields
up in there.

There it is.
The red brick place.

That door at the top there
on the left,

used to open up onto
a balcony.

Quite different now.

My parents,
Gordon and Jessica,

they were great.

They offered nothing less
than encouragement

at all times, really.

- Well, I used to try to go
with him as much as I could.

You can't always go every time
they want you to go fishing,

and so on.

Young Gordy can remember
these places.

He can remember just like
as if he was there yesterday.

But he got all his music
act from his mother.

- Well, Mom is my greatest fan.

She always, you know,

she's very, very much interested
in what I do.

Naturally, you know.

- Gordy was always encouraged,
and they used to play the piano,

and they just about put
Gord and I
right out of the house

with the noise.

[Gordon]: Here's where
my singing began,

when I was eight years old.

I shined my shoes
every Sunday morning,

and put on my white shirt,
and went to church.

And as a matter of fact,

I was at full cry
as boy's soprano.

And I would step down
and do my song,

present my song from right here.

♪ Forgive us our trespasses

♪ As we forgive those
Who trespass against us ♪

The day I walked
into grade nine,

I was asked if I wanted
to sing in a barbershop quartet.

[quartet singing]

It was a wonderful kind of music
and we had lots of fun doing it.

[jazz music]

[young Gord]: A little bit
later on,

I started drumming with
the local dance band, here.

And we played at various places.
We played up in Muskoka,

and we played down in Beaverton.

I was drumming and singing.

And we were playing
those old charts like Star Dust,

and things like that.

[Gordon]: And that's when
I started writing songs.

But I couldn't write
to my satisfaction.

I wanted to learn notation,

I wanted to learn
how to write music,

and I'm sure glad that I did.

When I was 18 years old,

I told my parents
I wanted to go to music school

in Hollywood, California.

That really... That was
a bit of a shocker.

It was a little bit of a shocker
for all the people that we knew
in Orillia.

They'd say,
"What is this guy doing?

Is he trying to get
in the movies

or something like that?"

[jazz music]

I applied, got accepted,
and away I went.

All of a sudden,
I was starting to write
all my own lead sheets

on onion-skin paper, and
getting them all copyrighted.

And I'd also gotten the job
being the vocalist

with the Wellesley College
Orchestra,

which was an orchestra of
17 pretty hot musical players.

And, you know, it was
a dandy little outfit.

In the early days,
everything that needed
to be done was being done.

It was like, I didn't know
why I was doing it,

and yet, it was just happening.

It was like
it was kinetic energy.

I just knew that at the end
of the line,

somewhere down the line,

we're going to make it,
pay the bills, somehow.

♪ Boss Man, Boss Man
What do ya say ♪

♪ I gotta get you alone
In the mine some day ♪

♪ Boss Man, Boss Man
Turn it around ♪

♪ If you don't look away
How can I sit down ♪

♪ Look at this load
upon my back ♪

♪ Gotta get this wheel
Back on the track ♪

The first thing I do
after I've left the house,

is I offer a little prayer.

"Please don't get me
in a fender-bender. Amen."

♪ The company plan
Takes all my pay ♪

♪ Got a child in July
And another last May ♪

- Gordon screamed Canada.

Gordon's stuff screamed Canada.

Everybody knew about this guy
that sang about Canada,

that sounded like nobody else,
that wrote all his own stuff,

that had that feeling
in his heart

You could hear it in the songs.

You know, Gordon was,
he was Canadiana.

- Lightfoot, you know,
he defined who we were
as Canadians.

It wasn't just pop music,
it was deeper than that.

And if there was
a Mount Rushmore in Canada,

Gordon would be on it.
- My opinion is, he was always
the biggest thing in Canada.

Like I said, there's been
big names that maybe made
more money,

but they weren't the legend,
as much as Gordon was.

- He is our poet laureate,

he is our iconic
singer-songwriter.

- He is Canadian. There's
a little bit of a Canadian...

spice in the stew, there.

And to cross over
from Canadian airplay

into American airplay
wasn't easy back then.

- He sent the message
to the world

that we're not just
a bunch of lumberjacks

and hockey players
up here.

You know, we are capable
of sensitivity, and poetry.

And that was a message that was
delivered

by the success of
Gordon Lightfoot
internationally.

People were more willing to
listen to someone from Canada,

because someone
of such enormous talent
had paved the way.

- He was at the top
of the totem pole,

and we were proud of it.

- There was a nascent but
evolving

cultural nationalism
that began to happen in Canada.

And after 1967, after the big
centennial in Canada,

when everybody
was looking around,

going, "Well,
who the hell are we?

Why don't
we have Canadian movies?

Why don't we have Canadian
music? Where is it?"

And suddenly, it was there.

♪ There was a time
In this fair land ♪

♪ When the rail road
Did not run ♪

♪ When the wild majestic
mountains ♪

♪ Stood alone
against the sun ♪

♪ Long before the white man
And long before the wheel ♪

♪ When the green dark forest
Was too silent to be real ♪

- Canada was turning
100 years old,

and needed something
to seize on,

for this significant point
in its history.

So, he wrote this song,
The Canadian Railroad Trilogy

about the opening of Canada

and the history
of the building of the railway.

♪ For they looked in the future
And what did they see ♪

♪ They saw an iron road runnin'
From sea to the sea ♪

♪ Bringin' the goods
To a young growin' land ♪

♪ All up through the seaports
And into their hands ♪

- Pretty amazing,
that somebody would write
a historical piece.

A sweet, a really ambitious,
long-form piece of music.

- Not many people knew
the story.

And he told the story properly
with melody,

and with his nice,
smooth voice.

And the theatre of the mind
that he created with his lyrics

was absolutely incredible.

I mean, even though
there's no real hook in it,

that's like real,
stamped in your mind poetry.

♪ Across the wide prairie
Our loved ones lie sleeping ♪

♪ Beyond the dark oceans
In a place far away ♪

♪ We are the navvies
Who work upon the railway ♪

♪ Swinging our hammers
In the bright blazing sun ♪

- He's made people aware
of their history

through his music.

And it's not just what he says,
it's what it sounds like.

♪ Oh the song
Of the future has been sung ♪

♪ All the battles
have been won ♪

♪ O'er the mountain tops
we stand ♪

♪ All the world at our command

♪ We have opened up the soil

♪ With our teardrops
and our toil ♪

♪ For there was a time
In this fair land ♪

♪ When the railroad
did not run ♪

♪ When the wild majestic
mountains ♪

♪ Stood alone against
the sun ♪

♪ Long before the white man
and long before the wheel ♪

♪ When the green dark forest
Was too silent to be real ♪

♪ When the green dark forest
Was too silent to be real ♪

♪ And many are the dead men

♪ Too silent to be real

[applause]

- Well I think,
in those early days,

those lines between country
and folk, and even rock'n'roll,

were kind of blurred.

♪ I ain't got a penny
For Cotton Jenny to spend ♪

♪ But then the wheels
go 'round ♪

I never had that traditional
country sounding voice.

Nor did Gordon, really.

- Back in the folk era,
you could write ballads,

people would listen to ballads.

Those early years,
it was really slow, slow.

♪ Pussywillows, cat-tails,
Soft winds and roses ♪

♪ Rainbows in the woodland
Water to my knees ♪

- I started realizing,
you gotta do stuff

that people are gonna
tap their toes with.

- One, two, three, four.

[Gordon]: Like, I like having
the beat going on.

♪ So fine, so fine
the web you spin ♪

♪ I come too close
and I'm caught again ♪

[Randy]: 12 string is a very,
very finicky instrument to play,

having the extra strings
that are an octave higher.

And Gordon's were always
in tune.

He had the most perfect
acoustic guitar sound,

whether it was 6 string,
or 12 string.

♪ All the day sit and spin

♪ Spin your web
And you draw me in ♪

♪ Spin, spin, spin, spin

- In the early days,
I personally feel

that Red Shea contributed a lot
to the Gordon Lightfoot sound.

But if you listen
to some of those iconic songs,

and you specifically listen
to Gord strumming,

he was like a freight train.

He just drove the whole thing.

It's no wonder he didn't have
to have a drummer in the
beginning,

because he was just so accurate,
and so strong a guitar player.

♪ In the web of wild desire

♪ And I cannot
control the fire ♪

[Randy]: I mean,
if you blindfold the people,

and put Gordon on stage
with 20 other acts,

the minute they play four bars,
you know it's Gordon Lightfoot.

There's a sound that he created
that's unique to him, in a way,

and it's there
on all his records.

Even though the songs change
and the lyrics change

and the tempos change,

he kept that same aura
of sound around himself.

♪ Shivering, quivering

- I didn't feel right
about that intro.

- It's too long, man.

- Too long.
- Yeah.

[Gordon]: Red Shea and I met
on Hoedown, on Country Hoedown.

I asked him to come out
and work with me on some shows

that I was playing around town,

at bars and lounges,
and back me up.

He was a great player.

Really, a funny,
and an interesting guy,

and a really good musician.

- The combination of Red
and Gord was really something,

I was very impressed
when I first came in.

I was the new boy.
I was 23 years old.

They always explained it that,

we want to sound like
one guy with four hands

playing the guitar.

And Red said, "I'm not
the lead guitar player.

We play together."

And it was kind of unique.

[announcer]:
Ladies and gentlemen,
Gordon Lightfoot!

- I put him in that group
of men and women

who wrote their own music,
who played their own music,

who sang it beautifully,

who sang it
in a very signature way.

You hear Gordon sing,
and you're like...

you're there.
You know it's him.

♪ You think you had
The last laugh ♪

♪ Now you know
This can't be true ♪

♪ Even though the sun
Shines down upon you now ♪

♪ Sometimes you must feel blue

[Gordon]: The vocal was always
there, for me.

It was always there.

All I thought about
was my guitar play.

That's all I ever think about
when I perform.

Just how good
can I play this thing?

I don't play nearly as well now
as I did then.

When I watch myself, the way I
played it then, it makes me
nervous.

♪ So take the best
Of all that's left ♪

- I was in the studio
at around the same time

Gordon was re-recording
all of his hits,

and I heard some rumblings
from some of the musicians,

because I was using
some of the same musicians,

about how particular he was
about everything,

and how many takes
he would insist upon.

You know, he was
a perfectionist.

He was very particular,
and I relate to that.

♪ ...promise of your dream world
coming true ♪

♪ With one less friend
to call on ♪

♪ Was it someone that I knew

- He was very strong
in the studio.

We would really do basic tracks
with his band,

and those were...

I mean, they were intense days.

He was so hands-on
during the recording

of the basic tracks,
with his musicians.

Really, really strong.

But, we got it done
fairly quickly,

because he was
so well-organized.

And once it was done,

if we wanted to add
something to it,

and it made some sort of sense,
he'd try.

I said, "What about adding
strings?" He said, "Fine!'

♪ When you wake up
To the promise ♪

♪ Of your dream world
Comin' true ♪

♪ With one less friend
to call on ♪

♪ Was it someone
that I knew ♪

- He always goes
to the right place, musically.

And it ends up
being very identifiable.

So, the combination
of the voice, the songwriting,

and the musicality,

you're dealing
with a big-time musician.

[applause]
- Thank you!

- When asked, "Who was
your favourite songwriter?"

Gordon said,
"Of all the multitudes around,

I'd have to go with Bob Dylan."

Ladies and gentlemen,
Bob Dylan.

[applause]

- Pleases me to be here
to give this award to Gordon.

I've known Gordon
for a long time,

and I know he's been offered
this award before,

but he has never accepted it,

because he wanted me
to come and give it to him.

So, here he is, now.
Gordon Lightfoot.

[applause]

♪ It ain't no use
To sit and wonder why again ♪

♪ It don't matter anyhow

♪ It ain't no use
To sit and wonder why again ♪

♪ If you don't know by now

- Lightfoot made it his business

to found out all he could
about Dylan,

and he made a point of learning
exactly what it was

this guy was doing
with poetry and music.

♪ So don't think twice
It's alright ♪

- Albert Grossman
had signed Ian and I

to an American agency,

and we'd said to Albert,
"You have to sign this guy."

[Gordon]: Albert Grossman
sent a person to Toronto

to see if I could sing.

And the next thing I knew,
I had an offer...

to do a management contract

with the best impresario
in the folk realm.

Everybody wanted me to sign.

But I still couldn't
make up my mind.

And so, Ian and I were sitting
at a restaurant. I said,

"What am I going to do, Ian?
I can't make up
my friggin' mind."

And he got his pen out,

and he took a serviette,
he wrote, "Sign".

So I signed.

And I went down
to New York.

Once I got with Albert,
I started doing
the American coffee houses.

We hit The Bitter End
in New York.

That was an experience,
it was one of the real number
one folk clubs in New York.

We get down there,
and walk around the streets,

and feel like you're a part
of the people.

[Bob Dylan]:
♪ Come gather round people
wherever you roam ♪

♪ And admit that the waters
around you have grown ♪

- We were hanging out
on the club scene in New York,

mainly Gerde's Folk City.

So, we got to hear
just about everybody.

♪ And you better start swimming
Or you'll sink like a stone ♪

♪ For the times,
they are a-changing ♪

[Nicholas]: For Lightfoot,
at that time,

Albert Grossman
had the connections

to get Lightfoot to appear
in a festival setting

like Newport,
with other artists.

- We were developing
a songwriting style,

and we were articulating
and formulating a style

which was going to stay with us
for the rest of our lives,
basically.

[Gordon]: I had recognized
the brilliance of Bob Dylan.

I went to a workshop that he did
at Newport one afternoon,

and he got up, he stood,
and he sang about...

5 or 6 tunes
right in a row,

and he just blew the place away.

♪ I ain't lookin'
to compete with you

♪ Beat or cheat
or mistreat you ♪

- I met Bob at Albert's house,

but I felt really, really shy,

because I was actually
awe-struck.

- Initially, Gordon was
kind of in awe of Dylan,

but Dylan was already
expressing admiration
for Lightfoot's songwriting.

- He's one of Bob Dylan's
favourite songwriters,
you know?

He's always known
about Gordon Lightfoot,

always been interested
in what he was doing.

- Dylan, whenever
he came to Toronto,

he would always make a point
of calling Gord,

and wanting to get together.

Dylan had invited Lightfoot
to come and perform

at the Rolling Thunder Revue
performance at Maple Leaf
Gardens,

along with this, kind of,
travelling circus collection
of artists that he had with him.

And the party that Lightfoot
threw at his Rosedale mansion

after the performance
was one of the legendary
blow-out parties.

- Hawkins was there,
and Ramblin' Jack was there,

and Roger McGuinn was there,

and all the ladies
were all there,
and Dylan was there.

Had about 50 people
in the house at Beaumont Road.

- They were admirers,
but they were also competitors.

And typically, what would happen

is they would have some awkward
conversation,

then the guitars
would break out.

- I've seen Bob Dylan
and Gordon Lightfoot
in the same place twice.

Once at a party at his old house
in Rosedale,

and I've seen them together
at the Mariposa Festival,

where Dylan almost
created a riot,

and they were kind of
hanging out.

If totally enigmatic people
could be in the perfect
marriage,

it would be Bob Dylan
and Gordon Lightfoot.

- And he was a friend,

and he was probably
the most amazing entertainer
I ever met.

- We're passing
Alexander Street, Gord.

Remember Alexander?

- Yes, I do.

I lived there
for almost three years.

I went there
when I left my home,

left my wife and children,

and moved out of the house.

♪ It's alright for some
but not alright for me ♪

♪ When the one that I'm lovin'
slips around ♪

- There's an apartment
building in Toronto,

on Alexander Street.

And the apartment building
was round,

like the old deck of records
building in LA.

So, I had an apartment.

Bernie Finkelstein
had an apartment,

Bernie Fiedler
had an apartment,

and then Gordon
had an apartment.

It was kind of a little
community.

And he was living
with a lady named Cathy Smith.

♪ I can see it in your eyes

♪ And feel it in the way
you kiss my lips ♪

♪ I can hear it in your voice

♪ Whenever we are talking
like this ♪

- I know for a fact that,

you know, Gord always
dealt with his feelings

by carefully crafting them
into songs.

♪ It's alright to live
And not alright to lie ♪

♪ When you come home

♪ And you can't say
Where you've been ♪

[interviewer]: You know the song
The Circle is Small?

Who's that referring to?

- About apartment dwellers.

People who dwell in apartments.

[interviewer]: People who dwell
in apartments?

What does that even mean?
- Apartment hopping.

I'm not talking about
going to another person's house
to have the affair,

I'm talking about going
from your apartment,

to another person's apartment
to have the affair.

- And were you doing that?

- Was I doing that?
- Yeah.

- Have I ever done that?
Of course I've done that.

When I think back,
a lot of the stuff,
I try to forget about.

That's an apartment
unrequited love song.

♪ The city where we live

♪ Might be quite large

♪ But the circle is small

♪ Why not tell us all

♪ And then all of us will know

- Cathy Smith. She was a very,
very lovely girl.

He really liked her,

more than anyone
I've ever seen him with.

And she could write,
and sing, she was everything,

but she had a weakness
for musicians.

- Her relationship at the time
with Gordon

was extremely mercurial.

She was a good singer.
She was a very good
harmony singer.

And I asked her

to come and do harmony vocals
on a song I recorded called

Do You Dream of Being Somebody.

Gordon was conspicuously upset,

and they had a bit of a
donnybrook about it.

And I don't think I really
want to go farther into it
than that.

The irony is
Do You Dream of Being Somebody
was the song,

and later on, she became
somebody for all the wrong
reasons.

[reporter]: Cathy Smith
was questioned by Los Angeles
Police,

right after Belushi's death
last March,

because she was with him
the night he died.

The investigation
was reopened last week,

after an interview Smith gave
to The National Inquirer.

According to the article,
she admitted injecting Belushi
with a speed ball;

a powerful mixture
of cocaine and heroin.

- There's always been
lots of questions about...

About Cathy Evelyn Smith.

All my life, people have always
asked me, "What about this?"

Cathy Evelyn Smith
was a wonderful lady.

I really loved her.

I would liked to have
married her,

but I was just newly divorced,

and I told myself, "I'm never
getting married again."

I knew that it was not
a good idea to carry out.

It was one of those
relationships

you get a feeling
of danger,

comes into the picture.

♪ I can see her lying back
In a satin dress ♪

♪ In her room what you do
What you don't confess ♪

♪ Sundown you better take care

♪ If I find you been creepin'
down my back stairs ♪

♪ Sundown you better take care

- What was quoted, was that
these people said about you,

one person said that you were
a scary lady,

and someone else described you
as hard, chiseled, you know...

- Probably, I was.

Everybody I've ever been with

that's been up there
and successful. Gord...

You know, he says,
"I could have been a banker.

I don't understand,
I get on the stage,

and I make thousands
of dollars.

They don't believe
that they deserve that stuff.

But he had it. And I wanted it.

So I just got off the edges
what I could use,

and I left behind the rest.

And you couldn't hurt me.
He couldn't hurt me.

♪ Sundown you better take care

♪ If I find you been creepin'
down my back stairs ♪

♪ She's been lookin' like
a queen in a sailor's dream ♪

♪ And she don't always say
what she really means ♪

- Gord was pretty tough,
when it came to relationships.

But she managed to hurt him.

He wrote that song,

referring to more than one
person

that might've been
involved with her,

and some of them were
Gordon's friends.

And I think that she was
part of a breaking point.

♪ I can see her lyin' back
In her faded jeans ♪

♪ She's a hard lovin' woman,
got me feelin' mean ♪

- Some of the best
things that he's written,

are from when such
a disturbing thing happened

in his personal life.

He was just writing it out.

And as a songwriter,

you try to amalgamate
your experiences,

however destructive
or wonderful they may be.

Putting them in some form

that they become universally
understood by other people.

- Sundown has this whole,
sort of, spaghetti western
kind of feel to it,

but the details are left out,

to the point where you can
kind of make up your own movie.

So, that's cool, you know.

[applause]

[folk music]

[Gordon]: Los Angeles
was great fun.

Most of it is just unbelievable
to me now, some of the things.

I always had a suite
at the Continental High House,

right on Sunset Boulevard.

And I would stay up
all night time.

There would be women,
there would be booze,

there would be
whatever you want.

A disc jockey in Los Angeles

started playing my stuff
all the time.

And so, first time I went to
the Troubadour,

it was just sold right out

for three days.
Because of this guy.

The Troubadour was the place
in Hollywood.

And that's how I met Joanna.

She was the head waitress there.

We dated, and we had a child.

His name is Galen,

and he took his mother's name,
McGee.

We played all around
all kinds of gigs,
all around California.

- We played in the Universal
Amphitheatre in Los Angeles,

it was like 4000 seats,

when it was open air,
there was no roof on it,

and we were selling it out
for 5 and 6 nights.

That was really something.

[Gordon]: I was offered a deal
by Jerry Weintraub.

They wanted me
to go and live in San Francisco.

"We'll manage you,
and you'll come to the States."

They thought it would be good
for my writing.

I was tempted.

Maybe I stopped feeling Canadian
for a couple of minutes,

but I said no.

By this time, I'd appeared
in a movie.

I was at the height
of my drinking,

and I look
terrible in that movie.

"Gord, you'll never win
the Academy Award,

but it was fun
working with you."

That's what Bruce Dern said.

And so, I was warned
by the record company

that I should give up alcohol.

At that time, the record company
was owned by Frank Sinatra.

And so, I was invited to
one of his recording sessions.

And Frank, he tried to do
If You Could Read My Mind,

but about halfway through
the first verse,

he threw it on the floor,
he said, "I can't do this!"

- Sinatra could be plenty
cantankerous.

And so, I don't think he was
in a good mood that night.

- If You Can Read My Mind,
he said, "I can't,

I can't sing this." '

Those were his words,
"I can't sing this."

- Sinatra looked at it and said,

"Too long." And threw it
on the table. Next!

- It was that same night
that Mo Ostin,

who is the president
of Reprise Records

pulled me aside...

and said, "Gord, you better
stop your drinking."

- How do you remain
so prolific?

How does it keep coming?

Year after year,
with no change.

- I find that the odd drink
helps.

[laughter]

- When he was performing
in Massey Hall,

he had some of
his famous parties

at his house
after the show.

Full of celebrities
and other people.

- The house would be filled
with people, and, you know,

every account I've heard
from people tell me that
he was actually

a pretty gregarious host,

but he was also
well into his cups.

♪ Pass it on over
It's a sin to be sober
Too long ♪

[Gordon]: A wild time.
It was party time.

♪ I'm bent but not broken
All I need is some rest ♪

♪ And a bottle of
your very best ♪

♪ Blackberry wine

- I don't know how I ever
made it through.

- I don't know if you could say
he loved to party,

but he loved to drink.

He did,
he loved to drink.

And in some ways,
it made him happier,

and was more fun to be around
in some ways.

And then,
at other times,

he would go into a drunken rage.

- You could tell he was drinking
too much...

and it was starting to tell.

Maybe over a bottle a day,
it starts telling on you.

♪ Blackberry wine
You know that I'm ♪

♪ No good without you

♪ Blackberry wine

- The first time
I almost met him,

was at a concert that he put on
in St. John, New Brunswick.

He was in the dressing room,
and somebody went in

and announced that I was there,

and he said,

"I don't give a sweet...

who's there. I'm not seeing
anybody."

So, that was my introduction
to Gordon Lightfoot.

- Both on stage and off,

he could handle the pressures
of the spotlight better

with a little lubrication.

- A lot of the songwriters
do dry up eventually.

There are a lot of songwriters
that we used to listen to,

and hear a lot,
and watch their career,

and all of a sudden,
it's stopped up.

- I keep telling 'em,
they don't drink enough.

- But you have an interesting
theory.

- I'm only kidding, you know.
I never touch the stuff.

- We did a show
in the Dominion Theatre,

in London, England one time,

that might've been
the low point.

He had only sung 5 or 6 songs,

and was cursing at the audience.

You know, it was pretty low.

[Gordon]: It finally got
to the point

where it no longer became fuel,
any longer.

But, I still didn't quit
drinking.

♪ The happy times are gone

♪ And I can still put on

♪ My Saturday clothes

♪ Every warm body knows

[Gordon]: I had some
opportunities presented to me

that I wouldn't take
because I drank, and I knew it.

I drank, and I knew it.

They didn't know it.
They didn't know it.

- There were lots
of warning signs

for Gordon to pay attention to,

and it wasn't until, ultimately,
his partner, Cathy Coonley
walked out on him,

and took their son Eric
with her, that he realized,

it had gone too far.
That the drinking
was costing him,

both on a professional,
and a personal level.

- So then, that was when
it was time to pack it in.

I had help in doing that.

My sister Beverly
ran my office for ten years,
at one point.

And my sister's urging
is one of the reasons
why I quit drinking.

- But all of a sudden, he quit.

I mean, I don't know
how he did it, cold turkey.

- When he quit, he quit.

- He was challenged
by people who said he was
not in a good place with it.

But he's the one who really
made the big move.

He rose to the challenge

and said, "Well, I can show them
that I don't have to do this."

- He's been a changed man
since then, you know.

- Through the height of his fame
in the '70s, he was sailing,

constantly on Georgian Bay,

and the Great Lakes.
He had sailboats,

but he also took up canoeing.

And people were kind of shocked
when they saw

the Gordon Lightfoot
of the early '80s.

- He was now, like, thin
and fit,

and looked like
a whizzing bush rat.

You know, he was totally
into the whole wilderness,
canoeing thing.

- After I'd done my first
canoe trip, I said,

"By God, I'll never do
another one of these
as long as I live."

I did ten trips over
the next 20 years.

You never took alcohol
in the bush.

It was a worthwhile
enterprise to try out.

You fly up 150 miles
to Muskox Lake,

to the beginning
of the back river.

From there, you just
head north.

Start seeing
the wildlife immediately.

We camped near
a wolf birthing place one time,

and we stayed there all night

and watched the activity
of the wolves

as they howled off
in the distance.

The next day, when leaving the
lake in Chicoutimi,

we saw a caribou
with a broken leg, and a calf...

being followed by two wolves.

It broke my heart.

♪ It's a wicked wind
And it chills me to the bone ♪

♪ And if you do not believe me

♪ Come and gaze upon the shadow
At your door ♪

I wrote the song Shadows
while I was up there.

- He loved the inspiration
of being in the Canadian wild,

and it became the source
of a number of songs.

- I've had other inspirations
of songs while paddling
in the canoe

that have manifested themselves
later.

♪ Let it go

♪ Let it happen like it happened
Once before ♪

Some of the places, we were in
the Boreal Forest,

like, when we did
the Churchill River,
we were mostly in forest area.

Most of it was in rock.

And some of the spills,
and some of the rapids,

and some of the waterfalls,

I mean, there's a waterfall
on the Angikuni River

that they say is three feet
higher than Niagara Falls.

♪ From the mountains
in the spring time ♪

♪ On a blue...

After about four or five days,

paddling in the stern
of a canoe,

you don't even have to think
about it anymore.

You just keep doing it.

That's what one of the trainers
down at the club says:

"Motion is the potion."

You know, I'm just about
80 years old,

and I'm starting
to live off that little idea.

Just don't stop.

[loon calling]

After I got divorced
the first time,

I swore
I would never get married again.

But I did, I did...

19 years later.

Liz was my second wife,
and we had two kids.

Miles and Meredith.

I have six children,
I have an extended family.

I'm responsible
for a lot of people,

and part of the reason why I do
what I do,

is so I can look after
everybody.

Alright!

Hi, I'm Gordon Lightfoot,

and the reports of my death
have been greatly exaggerated.

[cheering]

- There are a lot of people now
that realize how great he was.

And it actually has picked up
over the past ten years.

I remember running into
a very successful
record producer, Rick Rubin.

And he said, "I've just been
listening to Gordon Lightfoot
for five straight days."

And Rick isn't from that world.

- There's a whole bunch
of stuff got recorded.

Dozens and dozens of cover
recordings.

A hundred. 150,
I don't know, I never counted.

I lost track.

Some of them, you get into,
and they're just fabulous.

♪ Black day in July

♪ Black day in July

♪ Motor city madness
Has touched the countryside ♪

♪ And the people rise in anger

♪ And the streets
began to fill ♪

♪ And there's gunfire
From the rooftops ♪

♪ And the blood
begins to spill ♪

♪ Black day in July

♪ Black day in July

♪ Black day in July

- Sitting around the
Bad Religion rehearsal studios

over the years,

we would always break out
into versions

of Edmund Fitzgerald.

♪ The legend lives on
From the Chippewa on down ♪

♪ Of the big lake
they called 'Gitche Gumee' ♪

Now, some of you probably
already know this,

but "Gitche Gumee"
was Lake Superior,

to the north of Wisconsin.

The fact that it was mentioned
in a song on the radio

was pretty spectacular.

I always considered
The Great Lakes
kind of my roots.

Nothing was more inspiring

than seeing the big iron boats
come into the port.

That was probably
the most magnificent spectacle
on The Great Lakes.

First time I heard
Gordon Lightfoot
was on the radio

in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

As I got older, I started
to appreciate

Gordon Lightfoot's ability
to arrange songs,

and his arrangement style

is something that I learned
a lot from.

How you build a song

from those simple chords
and simple melodies,

into a much larger
evocative piece of work.

♪ The ship was the pride
Of the American side ♪

♪ Coming back from some mill
In Wisconsin ♪

That's when the crowd goes wild.

The Milwaukee crowd. I mean, I
can see how he's a Canadian
national hero,

but he also speaks with a voice

for anyone growing up
in The Great Lakes region.

[humming]

[boat horn]

[reporter]: The Edmund
Fitzgerald sank
in November 1975,

with the loss of all 29 people
on board.

[reporter]: The ship
was just 15 miles

from the relative safety
of Whitefish Bay,

but the powerful forces
of nature had different plans.

[reporter]: The ship
was tossed by 35-foot waves

in a tremendous storm.

[reporter]:
In a hurricane,
it simply disappeared.

[male reporter #3]:
The heavily laden boats
slipped beneath the waves,

and broke into pieces.

[reporter]:
The sinking of the Fitzgerald
became the subject of a ballad

by Gordon Lightfoot.

[reporter]:
His song helped create
the legend surrounding

the Edmund Fitzgerald.

♪ The legend lives on
From the Chippewa on down ♪

♪ Of the big lake they called
'Gitche Gumee' ♪

♪ The lake, it is said
Never gives up her dead ♪

♪ When the skies of November
Turn gloomy ♪

- The wreck of the Edmund
Fitzgerald, I remember that one
the most,

out of any of his songs,
and I think because,

as a high schooler,

I busked that song.

Out in front of the library
in Halifax.

The melodies are so powerful,

and he's such a good
story-teller,

and such a beautiful lyricist.

And the combination
of those things just really
makes for a great song.

♪ The wind in the wires
Made a tattle-tale sound ♪

♪ And a wave broke over
The railing ♪

- You know, back then,
there was very gummy music,
and gooey music,

and then a guy comes along
with The Wreck
of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

You know, you go,
wait a minute.

- And the winner is
Gordon Lightfoot,

The Wreck of the Edmund
Fitzgerald.

- It was a richer type of music.

It was like
a Simon and Garfunkel, almost.

That kind of a Cat Stevens,

people who wrote
very pretty music,

but there were very smart
lyrics woven into them.

There was some poetry here.

This is a guy that sang poems.

♪ The captain wired in
He had water comin' in ♪

♪ And the big ship and crew
Was in peril ♪

♪ And later that night when
his lights went outta sight ♪

♪ Came the wreck of
The Edmund Fitzgerald ♪

- The Wreck of the Edmund
Fitzgerald.

Well, it was kind of
the tail end
of an album session,

putting an album together.

And Gord came in one day,

and he said, "I'm working
on a song about something

that just happened."

He said, "I've been getting
newspaper articles

and looking at this stuff."

And he said,
"It's not finished yet,

but it's gonna go
something like this..."

And he started playing.

I don't know if it was
the next day,

or a couple days later,
we came back in the studio,

and Gordon started singing it
again.

- Kenny, the engineer, said,

"Well, you've got the studio
booked.

Why don't we
put it down on tape?"

- So, tape was rolling,

and Barry...

said to Gord,
"When do you want me
to come in?"

He said,
"I'll give you a nod."

- We get to whatever it is,
the third verse,

and Gord
gives me the big nod.

I do a drum fill to come in.

- We went right through
the song, top to bottom.

It was very elemental and raw,

but it had magic to it.

♪ Does any one know
Where the love of God goes ♪

♪ When the waves
Turn the minutes to hours? ♪

♪ The searchers all say
They'd have made Whitefish Bay ♪

♪ If they'd put fifteen
more miles behind her ♪

- It was not only a first take,

it was the first time
we'd ever played the song.

That's the record.

- After that, we tried
a number of times

to record it and get it better.

You always try to get it better
in a studio.

And we never could.

So, it was basically
a first take that came out

and became a hit record.
Which is very unusual.

♪ In a musty old hall
In Detroit they prayed ♪

♪ In the maritime
sailors' cathedral ♪

♪ The church bell chimed
Till it rang twenty-nine times ♪

♪ For each man on
The Edmund Fitzgerald ♪

- Nobody ever expected that
to be a single.

It was too long
for airplay.

- When I got to Nashville
when I was 19 years old,

Guy Clark and I were drunk
for a week

when the record,
the Edmund Fitzgerald
went to number one, because

you know, we were
writing these long story songs,

and everybody was telling,
"No, you need three minutes,
and you need choruses."

And then this big long story
song becomes a huge hit.

So, we got hammered
for about a week,

'cause we thought maybe there
was some hope for us after all.

♪ The legend lives on
From the Chippewa on down ♪

♪ Of the big lake they call
'Gitche gumee' ♪

♪ Superior, they said
never gives up her dead ♪

♪ When the gales of November
Come early ♪

[applause]

- Thank you.

- Gordon Lightfoot's arguably

the most important artist
that Canadian music's

ever produced,
in the mainstream or otherwise.

- They should have him
in the history books,

the grade five history books.

They should be teaching
about him in school.

- Whether it's a young
singer-songwriter,
or an older singer-songwriter,

or a musician, for that matter,
who's grown up in Canada,

they will have been impacted
in some way by Gordon Lightfoot
and by his music.

- You know, he had the voice,
he had the great songwriting,

he had the look.

And he had the attitude, too.

♪ Through the woodland
Through the valley ♪

♪ Comes a horseman
wild and free ♪

♪ Tilting at the windmills
passing ♪

♪ Who can the brave young
horseman be ♪

♪ Reaching for his saddle bag

♪ He takes a battered book
Into his hand ♪

♪ Standing like a prophet bold

♪ He shouts across the ocean
To the shore ♪

- Good day.

♪ Till he can shout no more

- Good day to all. We are back.

♪ I have come o'er
Moor and mountain ♪

♪ Like the hawk upon the wing

♪ I was once a shining knight

- Today we're here
at Massey Hall

for this wonderful
weekend of Canada Day,

to help
close the place down

while it gets a whole bunch
of work done.

♪ See the man who
tips the needle ♪

♪ See the man
who buys and sells ♪

♪ See the man
who puts the collar ♪

♪ On the ones
who dare not tell ♪

- We figured we were damn lucky
to still be doing this
all the time,

like a team, it's like team work

and we're always trying
to do it better all the time.

That's my bite.

♪ See the children
of the earth ♪

♪ Who wake to find the table
bare ♪

♪ See the gentry in the country
Riding off to take the air ♪

♪ Reaching for his saddlebag

♪ He takes a rusty sword
Into his hand ♪

♪ Then striking up
a knightly pose ♪

♪ He shouts across the ocean
To the shore ♪

- The type of material
that I'm doing in this set

requires the white shoes.

♪ He is wild but he is mellow

♪ He is strong but he is weak

♪ He is cruel but he is gentle

♪ He is wise but he is meek

[crowd cheering]

- People who are performers,
especially on Gordon's level,
are two people.

They're the person that they are
when they walk onto the stage

or when the have to do
something public.

They're in harness,
you might say.

And then, they're who they are.

And who they are,
and what they're supposed to be

often don't really overlap.

- I'll tell you what,

I'm probably Gordon' Lightfoot's
biggest fan.

But Gordon is always
kind of Gordon.

You can't really read his mind
much, 'cause you don't know
where he's at.

- What a run it was.

I'm happy for every moment
of the almost 80 years

that I've been here.

I appreciate having been alive.
I really do.

- There's a beauty
in the character,

beauty in
what he was writing about.

But there was a lot of
internal pain

that none of us will know about

and it makes you love him
'cause you know

there's this other
sensitive side.

You just have to dig.

Or listen to his lyrics,
and then you get it.

♪ If you could read my mind
love ♪

♪ What a tale
My thoughts could tell ♪

♪ Just like an old time movie

♪ 'Bout a ghost
From a wishing well ♪

♪ In a castle dark

♪ Or a fortress drawn
with chains upon my feet ♪

♪ You know that ghost is me

♪ And I will never be set free

♪ As long as I'm a ghost
That you can see ♪

- Your personal experience
and your emotional stress

finds its way in
by way of your unconscious mind.

Over into your real,
the mind of reality.

And it translates itself
into your lyrics,

and you don't even know
that that's happened.

♪ If I could read your mind
love ♪

♪ What a tale
Your thoughts could tell ♪

♪ Just like a paper-back novel

♪ The kind any drug store
Would sell ♪

♪ When you reach the part
Where the heartaches come ♪

♪ The hero would be me

♪ But heroes often fail

♪ And you won't read
That book again ♪

♪ Because the ending's
Just too hard to take ♪

- It's absolutely the most
amazing thing of all,

is the dynamic between
men and women.

♪ I walk away
Just like a movie star ♪

♪ Who gets burned
In a three-way script ♪

♪ Enter number two

♪ A movie queen
To play the scene ♪

♪ Of bringing all the good
things out in me ♪

♪ But for now love
let's be real ♪

- I regret a lot of things,
because it's not a free ride.

I mean, you don't just sail
through it, and laugh about it.

I mean, it's serious.

I caused emotional trauma
in people,

particularly some women.

The women I was closest to,
you know,

caused emotional trauma
in them,

and I feel very, very badly
about it.

As a matter of fact,

it feeds part of what
I was telling you about before,

it feeds
that guilt complex

that eats us up
in our unconscious mind.

♪ If you could read my mind
love ♪

♪ What a tale
My thoughts could tell ♪

♪ Just like an old time movie

♪ About a ghost
From a wishing well ♪

♪ In a castle dark
Or a fortress strong ♪

♪ With chains upon my feet

♪ But stories always end

♪ And if you read
Between the lines ♪

♪ You'd know that I'm just
tryin' to understand ♪

♪ The feelin's that we lack

♪ I never knew
I could feel this way ♪

♪ And I've got to say
That I just don't get it ♪

♪ I don't know
Where we went wrong ♪

♪ But the feelin's gone
And I just can't get it back ♪

[applause]

Thank you!

♪ You've got time enough
For two of us ♪

♪ What is mine, I will share

♪ We've got things
That we can do without ♪

♪ Most anytime, anywhere

♪ Every little daydream
That appears in all we do ♪

♪ Gives us some problems
Of our own ♪

♪ If you turn back to that
Page again ♪

♪ And you can't win

♪ If you ask me,
I'll tag along ♪

♪ Paper matches
in the afternoon ♪

♪ Cups of tea
and all of that Zen ♪

♪ I think, it's time we took
A walk outside ♪

♪ It seems there is no oxygen

♪ Each and every bad dream
Will be hammered into dust ♪

♪ When we get back
Where we belong ♪

♪ If you ever turn that page
again ♪

♪ And you need a friend
If you ask me I'll tag along ♪

♪ This time tomorrow we might
all be packed and gone ♪

♪ I believe it's best
we carry on ♪

♪ Smoke rings rising
Till they disappear ♪

♪ In the sky above
If you ask me I'll tag along ♪